FAISALABAD - May 14, 2015: Lahore Lions turned the tide on Faisalabad Wolves by winning with 45 runs in the Cool & Cool Presents Haier Super8 T20 Cup 2015 here at the Iqbal Stadium on Thursday.
Diminutive Pakistan batsman Umer Akmal first gave stability with his half century that lifted the score to 153 for eight and then Lions bowling attack restricted Wolves at 108 all out in 19 overs.
There were expectations that Wolves will get to the Lions total with little trouble but Lions bowlers kept their batsmen on their toes. Their to the line bowling could be judged from the fact that only three Wolves got to doubles figures while rest of the batsmen remained out of sorts as they altogether made 41 runs while Bilal Shah 21, Ali Shan 28 not out and Samiullah Khan 12 could break the single digit barrier. Hafeez and Imran Ali chipped in with two wickets each while Aizaz Cheema, Mohammad Aftab, Mustafa Iqbal and Saad Nasim snared one scalp each. The two wickets by Hafeez, involved the wicket of Misbahul Haq, who could make two runs as he faced five balls.
Umer went for a whirlwind not out 85 runs off 60 balls to give Lahore Lions score an authority to fight for. Lions lost their two wickets of opener Ahmed Shahzad and Mohammad Hafeez for just 27 runs. It was then the Akmal brothers, Kamran and Umer took things in their hands and took the total to 62. Opening the innings with Ahmed, Kamran was having no difficulty in middling the ball but was unfortunate at 25 to get run out from a direct hit from Asif Ali.
